Acts 15:14

15:14 Simeon ¹  has explained ²  how God first concerned himself ³  to select ⁴  from among the Gentiles ⁵  a people for his name.

Acts 13:1

The Church at Antioch Commissions Barnabas and Saul

13:1 Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch: ⁶  Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, ⁷  Lucius the Cyrenian, ⁸  Manaen (a close friend of Herod ⁹  the tetrarch ¹⁰  from childhood ¹¹ ) and Saul.

¹ sn Simeon is a form of the apostle Peter’s Aramaic name. James uses Peter’s “Jewish” name here.

² tn Or “reported,” “described.”

³ tn BDAG 378 s.v. ἐπισκέπτομαι 3 translates this phrase in Acts 15:14, “God concerned himself about winning a people fr. among the nations.”

⁴ tn Grk “to take,” but in the sense of selecting or choosing (accompanied by the preposition ἐκ [ek] plus a genitive specifying the group selected from) see Heb 5:1; also BDAG 584 s.v. λαμβάνω 6.

⁵ sn In the Greek text the expression “from among the Gentiles” is in emphatic position.

⁶ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia).

⁷ sn Simeon may well have been from North Africa, since the Latin loanword Niger refers to someone as “dark-complexioned.”

⁸ sn The Cyrenian refers to a native of the city of Cyrene, on the coast of northern Africa west of Egypt.

⁹ sn Herod is generally taken as a reference to Herod Antipas, who governed Galilee from 4 b.c. to a.d. 39, who had John the Baptist beheaded, and who is mentioned a number of times in the gospels.

¹⁰ tn Or “the governor.”

¹¹ tn Or “(a foster brother of Herod the tetrarch).” The meaning “close friend from childhood” is given by L&N 34.15, but the word can also mean “foster brother” (L&N 10.51). BDAG 976 s.v. σύντροφας states, “pert. to being brought up with someone, either as a foster-brother or as a companion/friend,” which covers both alternatives. Context does not given enough information to be certain which is the case here, although many modern translations prefer the meaning “close friend from childhood.”